


if there's a Will, he's away

by rainbowrabblerouser



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Character Study, Fix-It, Fluff, Gay Will Byers, Introspection, Love Confessions, M/M, POV Will Byers, Post-Canon, Siblings Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Will Byers Deserves Love, Will Byers Loves Mike Wheeler, Will Byers Needs a Hug, Will Byers-centric, he only calls her Jane ™ because he is gay and dramatic and envious and likes unnecessary conflict, projection onto character, rip to duffer brothers but im different, yes he cries alone at night like I do because we're both gay and lonely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23465731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowrabblerouser/pseuds/rainbowrabblerouser
Summary: Will bides his time before he has to leave Hawkins.
Relationships: Robin Buckley & Will Byers, Will Byers & Dustin Henderson, Will Byers & Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Kudos: 73





	if there's a Will, he's away

**Author's Note:**

> I'd suppose you listen to "7" by Lil Nas X 
> 
> "c7osure" is his song.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P71wOKzS82c

Will was never quite good at these things.

So when Mike pushed him to dance with the girl who had called him “Zombie Boy” and urged him to just go along with it, he did.

“Zombie Boy” sounded just the same as _“fairy odd faggot”_ to him.

Mike was just a regular all-American boy next door to him. 

His first and only crush.

As childhood sweethearts went, Mike was perfect.

But too good to be true.

He knew when Eleven disappeared and Mike started holding his hand and hugging him every chance Lucas and Dustin looked away, he could maybe halt the wallowing and the pining.

Then, maybe the little guy would win.

Alas, that was not the case.

Will the Wise was just a fool. Not even a jester.

Dustin was the first to notice it.

“Did you tell him?”

Will’s silence was an answer enough.

“Should we practice again? I’ve been watching a lot of SNL and my Mike impression is getting better. I can’t do the haircut. Nancy needs to take the dude out to a proper barber.”

Will sighs and puts his head in his hands.

Dustin would sleep over when he was down. Lucas was well...Lucas, and he could not be emotionally vulnerable like Dustin was.

“As the bard, I will resolve all issues. Now open up, Billiam,” Dustin poked him gently and slid onto his bed. 

They had been reading X-Men and gotten to the issue in which Ice Man said he’s gay. Dustin had given it to him as a gift. He was the only one who knew about him. Besides Jonathan...and maybe his mom.

She would be too supportive. So it was best to not talk about it. At all.

He used to feel ashamed of it, but he eventually got over it. 

When he saw Elton John and Freddie Mercury and George Michael…

They were his heroes. 

But there were days when he’d just think about it all. 

Mike’s words burned him: “It’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”

Well, it kind of is.

He could never know. 

Even then, Mike was too unaware of everything. He was so busy planning his life out with Jane (Will refused to use her stupid number name)...

Jane was cool enough to hang out with them, but she wasn’t as badass as Max was. Jane can’t skate, can’t play video games, and didn’t dress cool.

Will had style and taste; every outfit was curated with three factors in mind:

1) color coordination

2) mood

3) if Mike would see it.

Besides, Jane was gone again.

Except she was gone with him now.

Today was the last Thursday he’d ever had in Hawkins.

He guessed that was pretty good, considering everything that happened.

Jonathan was out with Nancy, while Steve and Robin were taking them out later.

Robin had a car, and she liked Will the most. 

He was her favorite. 

It took him a while to figure it out, but the reason was simple.

She was like him.

They were cut from the same rainbow, iridescent cloth.

Will recalled the conversation she had with him as she took him out to shop (steal) new clothes that weren’t stained with blood and would get “all the heads turning to see the New Will” – whatever that meant.

She got him denim jackets and vests, along with striped shirts and jorts. Multi-colored windbreakers and sunglasses. Bracelets and stickers.

Robin was the big sister he never had. She got him a skateboard and a phone he could use to call. She was an only child and always wanted a baby brother.

Robin always joked that it was fate – destiny for them to meet.

Will supposed fate was real.

There were hints of it throughout his life.

Like when he noticed Jonathan clicking better with Steve than he ever did with Nancy. Or when Lucas and Dustin had nicer interactions than he did with Max. Even when Jane and Max had closer, tender moments.

Why’d he have to be in love with Mike?

Tough, gentle, reliable Mike Wheeler, who would love him forever.

But not like that. Never like that.

He chucked his D&D set into the recycling bin.

No use in carrying around a reminder of his failure to speak up.

Will would keep the wizard robes. They were in style. He wasn’t an animal.

Despite what the kids at school said, Will was very much alive, but he felt that he may as well have been dead. 

Thoughts about kissing Mike, holding his hand once more, and keeping him around forever would drown him. He wished he could wake up from the silly fantasy he was enraptured in.

Dustin turns on his disco ball light and clears his throat. 

“Do you wanna go for a walk, Willbert?” Dustin coughs out in his worst Jay Leno voice.

“I think we need to learn a thing or two.”

The wind slaps against his coat as they step out. 

Will used to be afraid of the dark until Jonathan told him that the scariest things in life were his own fears and thoughts of what he made them out to be. Jonathan was a really edgy dude, but he still got what he meant.

Dustin locks their arms together like they were friends of Dorothy.

He knew he was.

“Y’know, I had to break it off with her.”

“Your girlfriend who can sing too?”

Dustin chuckles, “Yeah.”

Will pondered as they passed by Mike’s house.

The lights were all off except for the basement hatch he could see.

What was he doing?

“I think it’d be best if we skipped out on Michael tonight.”

“Sure, Jane’s probably there,” Will spits out.

Dustin just snorted and they headed over to Steve’s. 

“Why do you hate her so much? Like, I get it, but still–”

  
Will just gave him a look.

The one of displeasure and gay disasppointment.

“Oh, come on. You try being the brother to the adoptive psychic girlfriend.”

“I guess to make things worse, she’s still alive and here. And you’re living under the same roof...Do you still get the nightmares and the occasional, uh, y’know…”

The “y’know” Dustin is referring to is the sudden flashes of people’s damn thoughts he could hear. Mostly people deciding things. 

People who were thinking about what to do.

He would hear his mother the most at night.

Maybe it was her on the phone.

“Lonnie would call him,” her voice would lower. “–a, a ‘fag’ – and I would hit him back. I couldn’t let him.”

Will would just sit with it in his mind.

He used to cry a lot at night. Just sobbing at the idea that he would lose Mike forever one day and just cry about how he would die alone.

Probably of AIDS or something.

Likely surrounded by ten (10) or twelve (12) cats.

Not ever eleven.

That number was cursed now.

Dustin would cackle at that and pat him on the back.

“Maybe you could be a comedian. Not me. This is premium content. I hope there’s a gay bar in the town you move into. Because, wow. I needed that.”

Steve didn’t know him well, but he liked him well enough to give him free ice cream and pats on the shoulder, same as everyone else.

“Oh look, Henderson and Will the Wise have appeared. I just stole the rest of the rocky road. And I got _Re-Animator_ stolen on illegal VHS.”

He shows them campy B-tier horror movies while his parents are out of town and the mall is permanently shut down.

Will was pissed he wouldn’t be able to be there when another one was put in immediately. God bless free market capitalism.

Dustin began to doze off on his shoulder and Will just watched intently as the obviously gay scientist whispered softly to the hunky doctor dude.

Oh, to be a mad scientist with latent homosexual feelings for his lab partner and roommate…

Steve kept it going and got them more popcorn.

Of course, he had to scream and shout at the scary parts and then he fell asleep too.

Will was awake alone again.

This was the last movie night with them.

* * *

  
  


The next day, he went skating with Max, who had quite a lot to say. 

_Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Jane._

Will rolled his eyes as he attempted a kick flip and Max rolled around.

“I mean, seriously, boys are so stupid.”

“Uh-huh.”

Then, Max asks him the question of the decade: 

“Why don’t you have someone?”

He finally masters the kick flip and then takes a sip from the strawberry-kiwi Capri Sun he had taken out. This, again? Damn it.

“Because the last time I liked someone, he got someone else.”

She wasn’t surprised. Max didn’t give him odd looks at the revelation like he had told her he was a lizard man or he had nuclear launch codes.

“He’s not good for Jane.”

“Yeah, but Mike’s not the brain. That’s supposed to be Lucas...and me.”

Max does an ollie or whatever it’s called and laughs, “Lucas is not the brain at all, so it’s you. You know it’s all going to shit when you leave? I guess I’ll miss you a lot since you’re the balance.”

Will doesn’t know what it means, but he nods and gets another pouch out.

She takes a seat next to him on the bench and sighs as she puts her head on his shoulders. “Y’know...I always thought you were too good for Mike. He’s a fucking douchebag. A dunce. And just–”

“Very Mike?”

“Yeah, it’s weird he and Nancy are of the same bloodline.”

Max and Will watch the clouds swirl and guess shapes.

“That one looks like a dick.”

“Of course, it does.”

  
  


When Will wakes up, Mike is there.

They had a sleepover on the night before he’d leave.

No one else.

Just them.

Will had wished it wasn’t just him because that made everything harder on him. How could he say it to him? When Mike could just run out?

“Will,” he says softly.

They’re sharing the bed because Will didn’t care. They had been doing it forever. Why would some dumb girl change it? 

Mike was slumped against his shoulder wearing one of his rainbow sweaters that hung off his thin frame and showed off his collarbone.

Will would just disintegrate if he didn’t say anything sooner.

He does it for him.

“I’m gonna miss you.”

Will chooses to be dramatic. He turns away.

“Not as much as her, I guess.”

Mike makes a sad, upset noise as he takes Will’s face in his hands and presses their foreheads together.

“That’s not true. She’s not like you. She’s– we’re not together anymore. She’s too much. I’m too difficult. Will, I–” 

“I know.”

He lets Mike kiss him, but he prepares for the worst as he closes his eyes. Nearly three-fourths of their youth. And this was it?

Will feels like glitter.

Mike doesn’t let go for a long time.

They fall asleep as his rainbow starry lights circle around them for the very last time ever. Will feels Mike curl up against him as tears stain his pillow.

It would all be over soon.

  
  


Will sets down his stuff and immediately calls Mike when they move in.

There’s an arcade down the street and he hits that place up alone.

Jane is just napping in her room.

Will just tells Mike about what New York looks like.

They were in some lame town called Syracuse.

He guessed he’d go see a Broadway show sooner or later.

All he thinks about during his thirteenth game of Galaga is what Mike had whispered to him before the parted ways. 

_“Farewell, love.”_

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @rainbowrabblerouser
> 
> lots to think about for Will.
> 
> taking requests always !


End file.
